Building Brand Australia

Ian Harrison, Chief Executive, Australian Made Campaign

Food Regulations and Labelling Standards Conference Sydney, 28 July 2015

I’ve been invited to make some comments on:

1) Australia as a supplier of choice,

2) the impact of breaches in food safety,

3) labelling standards and changes to regulations, and

4) the AMAG logo.

Obviously there’s a lot happening right now in respect of 3)

So I will deal quickly with the AMAG logo and then wrap the rest up into an interactive discussion session

Outline of presentation

Created as a certification trade mark across all 34 classes of goods by Fed Govt in 1986

legally enforceable set of rules govern its use

these rules can only be varied by agreement with the Fed Govt (the Dept of Industry) and then the formal ratification of the ACCC

Logo was assigned to AMCL in 1999

not-for-profit, public company set up by the business community through the ACCI network

Ownership transferred from Govt. to AMCL in 2002

binding management agreement in place with Fed Govt.

Campaign is funded by licence fees – not by Government

< 1/10th of 1% of sales of nom products ($300$25K pa, + gst)

The AMAG logo in brief

GLOBAL BRAND

DOMESTIC & GLOBAL BRANDS

Australian Made, Australian Grown logo family

? ?

Logo recognised and trusted98% 94% 98%

86% 85% 88%

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

2006 2009 2012

Recognition Trust

(Roy Morgan Research)

500

750

1000

1250

1500

1750

2000

2250

02/03 03/04 04/05 05/06 06/07 07/08 08/09 09/10 10/11 11/12 12/13 13/14 14/15

Total licensees

Campaign Growing

“Government owned, industry driven”

Strong direction at Board level

AMCL’s national Board consists of ten Directors, elected by the 11 Member organisations

Glenn Cooper AM (Chairman), Chairman, Coopers Brewery Ltd (Adelaide)

Neil Summerson FCA (Treasurer), Company Director and former Chairman, BOQ (Brisbane)

Nicki Anderson, MD, Demo Plus (Melbourne)

Alf Cristaudo, Former Chairman, Canegrowers Australia (Townsville) Kate Carnell AO, CEO, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Canberra)

Allyn Beard (Deputy Chairman), Company Director, A.H. Beard Pty Ltd (Sydney)

David Gray AM, MD, David Gray & Co. Pty Ltd (Perth) Robert Gerard AO, Executive Chairman, Gerard Corporation Pty Ltd (Adelaide) Robert Hutchinson, State Manager, ParexDavco (Australia) Pty Ltd (Brisbane)

Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan Research (Melbourne)

Strong corporate support - Partners & Associates

Local Government involvement and support growing

Domestic marketing campaign

TV, radio, print and outdoor advertising

Extensive PR

Trade shows and expos

Comprehensive digital and social media strategy

Actually trying to help licensees sell their products

Digital presence great and rapidly expanding

www.australianmade.com.au

Visited over 90,000 times per month

Generates over 3,000 sales leads per month for licensees

Australian Made Club Nearly 30,000 members

Over 155,000 Facebook ‘likes’ Over 5,000 Twitter followers Over 1,000 Instagram followers Over 16,000 YouTube views

Key marketing messages The AMAG logo is the solution for shoppers

When consumers – people, businesses or Governments, see the logo, they can buy with confidence clean, green, healthy, fresh, etc

high standards, good value, fitness for purpose, readable instructions, warranties, etc

Buying Aussie products puts $s back into the local economy jobs, career opportunities, better futures, etc

There are consequences from shopping decisions

Focus is on CoO of the product, not ownership ownership important, but a distraction from CoO

Australian Grown in Coles

Overseas registration of the logo

The AMAG logo is a registered trade mark in a number of overseas markets:

Singapore

South Korea

China

USA

Establishes formal presence of the logo in each country Provides legal framework in each jurisdiction for protection of the logo and the

products that carry it Government support sought to extend registration to 7

other Asian countries – pending!

Arab Health, Dubai , 2012 Seoul Food Expo, South Korea, 2013

Big 5, Dubai ,2013Expo 2012, Yeosu, Korea, Australian Pavilion

NTUC FairPrice Singapore, Sept 2013

Asia Fruit Logistica – Hong Kong, 2012 Winter Fancy Foods, San Francisco, 2010

(G’Day USA)

Retail bag, World Expo, Shanghai, China, 2010

• China• Australia Made Shop Pty Ltd - chain of AM branded stores

• Oz-Town – new entrant for AM branded stores

• South Korea• SINI Care Australia – chain of AM branded stores

• Singapore• Cold Storage – retail chain licensed to use the logo for their Aussie

house- branded products

• NTUC Fairprice Co-operative – annual AM retail promotion

AMAG logo in overseas retail shops

Australian Made stores in China

AMAG logo in overseas retail shops

1. Australia as a supplier of choice

2. The impact of breaches in food safety

3. Labelling standards and changes to regulations

Points of discussion

• Essential strategy for Australian food processors

• Australia’s strong nation brand;

• Recognised high standards – healthy and safe foods;

• Volume limitations on Australian suppliers means we should always pursue high-end niche markets;

• We won’t/can’t be the cheapest.

• Rationale behind the ASA100 initiative with China

1. Australia as a supplier of choice

• Always a big threat in the food sector• volatile product that people consume

• Frozen berries – Patties Foods, Feb 2015• food security issue rather than a CoO labelling

• limitations on our biosecurity resources

• approx $1.5M cost, 9% profit downgrade in 2014/15

• Fonterra’s whey protein botulism scare, Aug 2013• "watershed moment" for Fonterra in terms of food safety

2. Impact of breaches in food safety

• “Fonterra realised in a most profound way that food safety was the one thing without which it was impossible to achieve any other company priority, whether sales and profits, a sound reputation, strong consumer confidence or a secure future on the world stage.”

• “…… Food safety is now assuming its rightful place in the top tier of Fonterra’s priorities.”

(NZ Government Inquiry report)

2. Impact of breaches in food safety (Contd)

3. Labelling standards and changes to regulations

Government’s proposed mandatory ‘contents graphic’

Cabinet decision announcement last week

Response to frozen berries matter – different issue

Mandatory symbol proposed for all packaged foods showing Australian content, by weight

Plus AMAG logo (where product qualifies)

Examples of proposed labelling

Comments on Government’s contents labelling proposal As always devil in the detail

Proposing to also vary the ‘safe harbour’ provisions for ‘made in’

Removing the 50% value-added test - food and non-food

Strengthening the substantial transformation test

Many issues for the AMAG logo CTM:

consistency between food and non-food sectors – particularly compliance

financial arrangements for use of symbol

application to exported foods in competitive marketplaces

Many issues for AMCL:

Administration of the CTM in the food sector

Scale impact

Financial commitments

Questions?

The Australian community working together to promote its products and produce to the world

www.australianmade.com.au